


One Less Archangel

by angelboygabriel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Episode: s05e19 Hammer of the Gods, Hammer of the Gods coda, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 20:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10861152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelboygabriel/pseuds/angelboygabriel
Summary: Sam goes back to Elysium Fields to see Gabriel's body.





	One Less Archangel

Dean had been an idiot to think he's seen the end to all this.

 

When the Winchesters had put enough distance between them and that hellish hotel to feel safe pulling over, they had watched that  _ stupid _ DVD Gabriel gave Dean.

 

“Guard this with your life.” he said. 

 

“If you're watching this, I’m probably dead,” is what he said now. 

 

Sam’s face had been a barely-contained stone mask of fury as they watched him, Gabriel, give them the keys to winning. When Dean slammed the laptop shut, Sam just stood there, rage simmering beneath his face, before he became eerily calm, wrenching the video out of the computer and shoving it in his duffle. He had gotten into Baby and driven away before Dean could get in a word edgewise, leaving him feeling lost on the side of this unknown road. 

 

It took Dean two hours to hitch a ride back to the hotel, where a sleek black Impala was parked haphazardly in the lot. 

 

His brother was exactly where Dean knew he'd be. 

 

When Dean ran in, Sam looked up with horrified eyes, hands gripping the broken form of an archangel so hard there had to be bruises forming. He was shaking like someone had thrown him into a tornado.

 

His whole frame shook uncontrollably as he pulled Gabriel into his chest, never looking away from Dean. 

 

“I loved him.” Sam said, voice cracking painfully.

 

“Oh God,  _ I loved him _ .” Sam said again, the full realization hitting him. 

He began to rock back and forth on the heels of his feet before the tears started. Dean stood like a sentinel in the doorway, watching stoically as Sam wept over the archangel. It was worse than watching Sam at Jessica’s grave, where at least the two had been able to deal with their feelings and had given each other a piece of themselves. Now, it was just a man with nothing left but his brother. Sam and Gabriel had never even begun to figure out their attractions to the other. 

 

Dean didn't know how long he stood there. 

 

The room stank of blood, but what was probably worse was the underlying smell of ozone and charred feather. It made Dean sick, even more so than the ugly mars of burnt wings on the floor and the blood that was gradually soaking Sam’s shirt from where he held Gabriel to him. Gabriel, who Dean hated furiously but who saved them in the end. And now he was gone.

 

“I thought- I thought he might’ve tricked us again, he wouldn't be here,” Sam murmured, hands still shaking as they stroked through the archangel's hair, “I thought dammit, if I had hope, he wouldn't… he wouldn't be…” Sam trailed off. 

 

He didn't want to say it. Saying it would make it real.

 

Dean put his hand on Sam’s shoulder and gently forced Sam to look at him. His eyes were fever-bright and terrified, and Dean was struck by the image that he was just seeing his baby brother, afraid of the things in the night and being alone, all over again. His heart broke for Sam. 

 

“You gotta let go.” Dean mumbled and Sam looked back at Gabriel, eyes closed. Sam slowly placed Gabriel’s body back on the floor, reverently arranging his arms and tracing a finger across his lips. 

 

The first release was easy, as all physical things are, but the second, the metaphorical, would take time. 

 

Dean gathered Sam into his arms and helped him stand as they limped out to the car. After piling Sam into the back seat, he picked up something shiny from the ground. It was a wrought iron chain with two pendants, one a hammer with intricate Norse inscriptions and the other what looked like a calling horn with the symbol Ged carved on the bell. Both were the size of Dean’s thumbnail, and he wrapped the necklace around Sam’s hands. He was already asleep as they pulled out of the parking lot, Dean playing Lynard Skynard quietly. 

  
The Winchesters would carry on. They always did.


End file.
